R4 Cartridges Declared Illegal in the U.K.

[oktalist]

So then it was because it had a legal use it was legal regardless and today because it has a illegal use its illegal regardless....ya..... I smell lobby money and government corruption.....

Linux geeks have been trying to tell you this for the past decade.

How the hell do you think people grow cannabis in a non-native country without smuggling? How do they get the plants or seeds? Those need to be brought in illegally and the number of people who grow compared to the number who buy from dealers is tiny anyway, almost a statistical aberration.

There have been many times where breaking unjust laws was a good idea. See civil disobedience [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience].

Off-topic: Importing seeds is not unlawful in this country AFAIK. You're right about smugglers being a bad sort of people, but if cannabis was legal then that wouldn't be the case. Then they wouldn't have to take risks or carry weapons. It would be a legitimate, taxpaying business, like alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, fast food, sodapop, videogames... all of which are seen as immoral by vast segments of the population.

 

[Wintermoot]

I dont live in the UK and if they keep it all a secret its A-OK you can always order online and I think its forbidden to open up mail

 

[T'Generalissimo]

This ruling seems a little bit weird to me. Somebody tell me if I'm misinterpreting it, but the implication seems to be that if you use a product in a way that the manufacturer disagrees with, then you're breaking the law. Because the R4 isn't inherently a piracy devise, right, it's just that it can be used for piracy?

 

[night_chrono]

Fine, piracy is not in itself theft. It is however stealing the value of the product. By bootlegging software that is still available for sale you're taking away from the developers, the publishers, the distributors and, if you buy in bricks and mortar, the retailer.

So, once you've downloaded this item, you have then deprived these organizations, that employ real flesh and blood humans just like you and me, of their rightfully deserved money.

Now if we're talking about Abandonware than that's a different issue since no one stands to make money on something not commercially available.

Your assuming that pirating is a lost sale. Having been unemployed for six months, and only making around $5000 a year before that, I pirate because I can't afford to play games otherwise. If piracy was somehow completely shut down, I would not start buying anything I would just go outside or something.

I understand that developers should be paid for their work. I do buy games when I have the means. However I usually only have the means around Christmas when its the steam holiday sale.

Also in the rare case I do go buy I game I usually get it used since it's cheaper. Now the developers aren't getting any of that money, so is piracy any worse than that?

 

[Loonerinoes]

Personally I think that how Nintendo will do in the US will test yesterday's law in practice very well. For me, if it is sufficient to rebuke the lawsuit, then it seems as if the law does indeed apply to all. But if in the end the argument like "Oh, but that's just for Apple, this is totally a different thing!" will prevail well...meh...then that law would seem moreso to me as just a result of some industry lobbying against competitors.

But eh...too little info to judge anyway. Just comment and watch it happen.

 

[Moriarty70]

Your assuming that pirating is a lost sale. Having been unemployed for six months, and only making around $5000 a year before that, I pirate because I can't afford to play games otherwise. If piracy was somehow completely shut down, I would not start buying anything I would just go outside or something.

I understand that developers should be paid for their work. I do buy games when I have the means. However I usually only have the means around Christmas when its the steam holiday sale.

Also in the rare case I do go buy I game I usually get it used since it's cheaper. Now the developers aren't getting any of that money, so is piracy any worse than that?

I had said in my response to Stubee, unemployed/broke is a little more of a gray area and I've been guilty of that myself which is why I make the effort not to now. It is still a luxury though, not a necessity.

I would say at least 90% of the time though it is a lost sale, especially considering many games pirated are new releases on PC that require a decent machine to play on, that had to be bought fairly recently. This would suggest that these people have the means to buy the product anyways.

On a side note, if you're looking for games at a crazy good price year round. Good Old Games. Mostly stuff from the 90's and I support that site with a firery notaligic passion.

 

[squid5580]

Oh god, first this and then that law about removing your internet connection for piracy. I for one don't pirate, I hate piracy, but even I think they're getting a little too strict over it.

Uh huh.

Still, it doesn't really matter, they'll still make R4's and you'll still be able to buy them, just the same as something like Mephedrone being banned. It just moves underground.

I can see which position they're coming from, but like all prohibitions, I can't see this one working.

So what you're saying is... we are not required to obey the law if we don't feel like it?

Isn't that the call of the pirate?

 

[not_the_dm]

I hate draconian security and locked software but I hate piracy more. It's theft and the thief's usual response is to shrug and basically say "You shouldn't have made something I wanted then".

"theft (θɛft)

? n
1. criminal law the dishonest taking of property belonging to another person with the intention of depriving the owner permanently of its possession "

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theft

Piracy is not theft, the original owner is not deprived of their product.

You sir deserve cake.

Sorry. I got peckish.

 

[midpipps]

Fine, piracy is not in itself theft. It is however stealing the value of the product. By bootlegging software that is still available for sale you're taking away from the developers, the publishers, the distributors and, if you buy in bricks and mortar, the retailer.

So, once you've downloaded this item, you have then deprived these organizations, that employ real flesh and blood humans just like you and me, of their rightfully deserved money.

Now if we're talking about Abandonware than that's a different issue since no one stands to make money on something not commercially available.

Your assuming that pirating is a lost sale. Having been unemployed for six months, and only making around $5000 a year before that, I pirate because I can't afford to play games otherwise. If piracy was somehow completely shut down, I would not start buying anything I would just go outside or something.

I understand that developers should be paid for their work. I do buy games when I have the means. However I usually only have the means around Christmas when its the steam holiday sale.

Also in the rare case I do go buy I game I usually get it used since it's cheaper. Now the developers aren't getting any of that money, so is piracy any worse than that?

But see even this argument is flawed so you do not have the money that is fine and you can only afford the odd game here and there which is also fine. But pirating is still not fine. I went through a long stint in college where I could not afford to buy any games and guess what during that time I just did not play any new games I asked for them from parents and friends for christmas and birthday otherwise I went outside.

If you are not going to pay for the game you have no right to be playing the game. At least if you are playing a used game then someone at some time had payed for that game and at least once they sold it to gamestop or whatever they have relinquished their copy of the game so it is not just making more copies. They have in theory moved the game from their possession to yours. So both of you are not playing the game at the same time. Where as pirating the game is not only not even at least 1 sale for every 2 or 3 people that play the game. But it may be 1 sale to the initial uploader for hundreds or thousands of copies of a game where everyone in the chain still has the copy they got while giving more copies out to others.

I am sorry if you are unemployed or are not making the wages to be able to buy games. But there are tons of legally free games out there I can give you the sites of at least 20 without even having to work to hard or even deals like the humble indie bundle that comes around where you can pay as little or as much as you would like for games. So why do you think it is ok to get a paid version of a game for free?

 

[Sevre]

They really take their time with these things, it's far too late to declare them illegal when the 3DS is about to come out.

 

[mariofan1000]

Did they offically say R4 or did they say flashcarts?

 

[PhantomCritic]

Even though piracy is not one of my favorite past-times, I still find the banning of R4s a tad much.

 

[Om Nom Nom]

IANAL, but...

		(i) manufactures for sale or hire, imports, distributes, sells or lets for hire, offers or exposes for sale or hire, advertises for sale or hire or has in his possession for commercial purposes any means the sole intended purpose of which is to facilitate the unauthorised removal or circumvention of the technical device; or
		(ii) publishes information intended to enable or assist persons to remove or circumvent the technical device.

[td colspan=3]§296 (1) This section applies where - [/td] [td colspan=2](a) a technical device has been applied to a computer program; and[/td] [td colspan=2](b) a person knowing or having reason to believe that it will be used to make infringing copies -[/td]

Possessing an R4 is not unlawful, provided you do not intend to use it for commercial purposes.

Personally importing an R4 as a private individual for personal use is not unlawful, provided you do not intend to use it for piracy.

Selling or gifting an R4 is not unlawful, provided it is to someone who you can reasonably trust not to use it for piracy, such as a trusted friend.

Nintendo: ONOES, that 4-year-old has an R4! PIRACY!! SUESUESUESUESUE!!!
The Law: Well, you believe it's being used for piracy. You win!
Nintendo: Yay!

 

[sosolidshoe]

So yeah, I hope the High Court will also be ruling that MP3 players, USB pen drives, flash memory chips for mobile phones and CDs/DVDs/Blu-Ray are all illegal as well, considering that the same justification put forward for banning the R4 could apply to them as well.

I'm sure the decision has NOTHING to do with Nintendo's constant lobbying of politicians(and they the judges) to bring in this ban, so they can continue to force people to re-buy games they already own on other systems and block them from playing free indy games which are far superior to Ninny's tired shite. Nothing at all.

 

[Crops]

The justification for banning the R4 is not that it can be used to play pirated games.

It's that the card bypasses DS security measures -no matter what purpose you use the card for- in order to work, which is illegal.

It's all right there, in the article.

 

[Baldr]

Ok, I'm against piracy, but these devises can be used for perfectly legal purposes like Ebook readers as such that don't have anything to do with piracy, so the devise itself shouldn't be illegal, putting illegal software on it should.
This should be a lesson for game developers they should design the consoles to be more resistant to these devices or better DRM on the software.(Most anti-hack stuff on the DS is not even noticed by legit users.)

 

[m@]

I don't even know where you're going with the cannabis thing but how the hell do you think people grow cannabis in a non-native country without smuggling? How do they get the plants or seeds? Those need to be brought in illegally

actually cannabis seeds are completely legal in most countries, its the germination of the seeds thats illegal.

and even if they weren't cannabis seeds can actually be found in most/alot of mixed seed packs, which are sold in super markets, and even though these seeds are dried it's possible to rehydrate them and grow the plants aparently..

as for the R4 cards as most have said before take down 1 and 10 more will pop up and purely for the legal uses i welcome it, why should homebrewers be punished for doing nothing wrong.

1 thing about DRM, nintendo do update it resonably regularly but you'll never stop the hackers it just takes a little longer and they enjoy it more.